Happy 27th B-day Andy!

Thursday was Andy's Birthday but I worked and he has class that night. So the big day wasnt full of much fun. However, I had something up my sleeve for him, and I was so excited to surprise him on Saturday. I arranged for my mom to watch Dallin and we headed out without Andy having a clue what was going on. We headed up the street to Tsunami, which is an awesome sushi restaraunt. I am not a sushi fan, but he is and hadnt been forever. It was way yummy and it was nice to enjoy a dinner without having to entertain a 2 year old. After dinner we ran home for a second, and while Andy ran in the house I slipped his Jazz Jacket on the seat. When he came out he realized the next part of the plan. We headed down town to the Jazz game where we enjoyed an AMAZING game. We had been ahead at one point by 20 points, but with 2 minutes left we found ourselves down by 7. Well basically we sunk some amazing shots and ended up tieing the game sending it into overtime. We eventually won so that made it even more sweet! We played the Suns so I got to see Shaq in person. He is huge, and because we were on row 13 I got an awesome picture of him and Boozer. Sunday we celebrated his birthday with his family and yummy German Chocolate cake. Tonight we are headed to my parent's house for more fun and food! I just wanted to say how much I love my hubby. I am so proud of him, he has been working so hard with school, and 2 jobs. I cant wait for him to graduate this summer so he can have some long awaited free time! I love you babe.

Candid Moments

For most of us who blog, it seems that the blog is more about our kids, and less about us. I had some random pictures I wanted to share that really captures Dallin's personality. Enjoy

Here is Dallin and his cute cousin Lyla. They are showing off the gold coins that Grammy hid for them to find on St. Patricks day.

I love this picture. Dallin decided to climb into one of his toy bins and lay on his blanket.

This was Dallin at the zoo. I caught just the perfect angle for this shot!

Dallin and his new cousin, Grey. He is so cute with him and always gives loves and wants to hold him.

Baby Shower

I am so lucky to have such amazing girlfriends at work who offered to throw me a baby shower! There is another girl at work who is just about three weeks ahead of me, so we had a combined shower for both of us. It is always so fun to hang out with my work friends outside of work, so it was a great night for everyone. Baby Claire sure made out with tons of new presents and I had such a good time visiting. Thank you to everyone who helped and for all the wonderful baby things!

Baby Talk

I feel like my pregnancy has FLOWN by. Its hard to believe that in less than 3 months our sweet baby girl will be here. I have been thinking about what this all means for our family, and the biggest adjustment I think I will have to make is finding a balance between Dallin and Claire. It kind of makes me sad to think that Dallin wont be my only sidekick anymore. I am so grateful we have family near by who will still want to spend 1 on 1 time with him. My mom even told me that while I was on maternity leave she would still watch Dallin on her one day! How nice is she? By the way, let me just say I have the best mom ever. She has really been the best "nana" and boy does she spoil my kids. Dallin always had a closet full of clothes and his own nursery which now has become his "big boy" vintage airplane and car room. And now, the extra closet is already jam packed full of baby girl things. I think she has a bit too much fun shopping (but she sure knows where to shop and gets the best deals ever). She also has helped me pick out fun decorations for Claire's room, and has even paid for lots of the stuff. How sweet is that? Love you mom!!! Anyway, I have been feeling pretty good overall. My pelvis has really started bothering me, it makes it hard to move around. I have heartburn all the time (hopefully this indicates lots of cute red hair). I am super excited for the ski season to be over so I can clear out Andy's office and start decorating the cute shabby chic room that I have all planned out in my mind. I was thinking today, what if the baby comes out a boy? I am sure every parent has this thought, but seriously, I would die! I will post some pictures of the finished product once we get started here in the next few weeks.

Sweet Gracie

Most of you know that I work up at Primary Children's Medical Center. I am an xray tech, and for those who dont realize, my job entails way more than just taking pictures of broken bones. I truly love working there, and feel like I am a better person and especially mom because of the different things I face at work each day. There is a blog that many people read about a sweet little girl named Gracie. She was born with a heart defect called HLHS. Now I probably saw Gracie countless times up in the PICU taking xrays, as do I see many kids daily. It is interesting how my job works. I see sick kids every day, I know their names, and recognize them and their families, but I never really get to see more than that. When I came across Gracies blog the other day, I couldnt help but cry. I feel like I know her, and to see the personal side to the story (not just the medical side) made such an impact on me. Usually I go home from work not thinking too much about my patients because I dont get to follow their story. Gracie helped soften my heart and made me realize that each one of these kids that I help each day is someone's daughter/son/siter/brother. They are real people facing real challenges. Working in the medical field is tricky. You really have to find a balance between work and home life. For me, I dont usually get too affected by most of my patients, but Gracie sure hit hard. For those who dont know, sweet little Gracie passed away last week after a failed heart transplant. She was 11 months old. Click here for a link to her blog to hear her amazing story.

The newest purchase

Okay, so I am so excited that I finally found a stroller that I LOVE! Today I bought this awesome Graco Quattro Duo stroller. I have battled with this decision for a while now, and have done tons of research and asked total strangers tons of questions about their strollers. I thought for sure I had decided what kind of stroller I wanted, considering Dallin would be almost 3 when the baby came. The Sit-N-Stand stroller seemed to be the most logical because it allows the older child to have more freedom being able to sit or stand in the back, while the infant was in the front. The more I thought about it though, the more I was worried that Dallin would have too much freedom. He is totally the "run away" kind of child and I feared that he would just take off while I was busy doing something with the baby, or paying at the store etc. I decided I wanted a stroller where he could still be strapped in if necessary, but still have some freedom. Also, for long days at the zoo and other outings, I wanted him to be able to rest or even sleep. Well to make a long story short, I found this stroller which seemed to be the perfect blend of the two. The front allows the older child to easily get in and out, but still has straps, has the recline feature and even cup holders! I was thrilled when I found this stroller, but not thrilled on the $250 price tag. Seriously? I was stumped, but luckily I found an awesome website which had this stroller on sale for $150. That is $100 dollars off yo! I could not believe it, and to make things even that much sweeter, my cute mom and dad ended up buying it as a gift for us. What a great end to my stroller saga.